Monday, April 23, 2012

Well, St. Patrick's Day arrived once again and that means another fine day for marching in the parade. Plus, since I painted the windows of the local bar I got to drink for free that day. I've found St. Patrick's Day to be kind of tiring, I'm on my feet the whole day, walking down to the parade, walking up Fifth Avenue, walking back, and then standing in a bar. Most bars clear the chairs away to make room for the crowds, so needless to say, my dog's are barking by the time St. Patrick's Day is over.

Supposedly, the custom of imbibing alcohol on St. Patrick's Day comes from an old Irish legend. As the story goes, St. Patrick was served a measure of whiskey that was considerably less than full. St. Patrick took this as an opportunity to teach a lesson of generosity to the innkeeper. He told the innkeeper that in his cellar resided a monstrous devil who fed on the dishonesty of the innkeeper. In order to banish the devil, the man must change his ways. When St. Patrick returned to the hostelry some time later, he found the owner generously filling the patrons' glasses to overflowing. He returned to the cellar with the innkeeper and found the devil emaciated from the landlord's generosity, and promptly banished the demon, proclaiming thereafter everyone should have a drop of the "hard stuff" on his feast day. And here I was thinking that it was just an excuse to indulge in an unflattering Irish stereotype.

All in all, it was a great day for the Irish ... again! Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Construction of the bridge being covered in the April 28, 1883 edition of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge is a very popular New York City tradition that I decided to take upon myself recently. I had done it a number of times in the past, the first times while living near it in Brooklyn Heights in the summer of 2003. One can walk across any of the bridges that go across the East River, but the Brooklyn Bridge is the nice one. I walked across the Manhattan Bridge once a couple of years ago, and the small path that ran along all the rumbling trains going back and forth was not a very serene experience. But the walking path that runs above vehicular traffic and below two of the most recognizable arches in the world has made it easy and pleasant for the pedestrian to walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back again.

The bridge was designed by prominent 19th-century German suspension-bridge designer John Augustus Roebling, who suffered an injury when his foot was crushed by an incoming ferry. His toes had to be amputated, but not even this prevented his wounds from getting infected and leading him to become bed-ridden and die shortly thereafter. His son Washington oversaw the completion of the bridge, but also soon suffered from caisson disease, making it unable for him to supervise construction first-hand. His wife Emily then took over, and helped deliver important messages from the engineers to her bed-ridden husband. Despite some doubt that it would ever happen, the bridge opened on May 24, 1883, when U.S. President Chester A. Arthur and New York Mayor Franklin Edison walked across the bridge to greet Brooklyn Mayor Seth Lowe at the Brooklyn-side tower. Six days later, a panic occurred that killed six people when a rumor started to spread that the bridge was going to collapse, but P.T. Barnum squelched all rumors of the bridge's instability when he led a parade across it with Jumbo, one of his most prized attractions, and twenty-one other elephants.

I first walked across the bridge when I was living in the Brooklyn Heights area almost nine years ago. The old wooden beams of the walkway are a little off-setting at first since you can see down to the speeding cars below, but they are pretty sturdy, as proven from the millions of people who walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back again each year. It's those bicyclists you need to look out for! Whether your on bike or on foot, just be sure to stay in your lane and check out this staple of New York City tradition.